The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. 544 p. Scholastic Press/ Scholastic Inc., January, 2007. 9780439813785. (Own.)
#tbt features The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. I love to hand this 500+ page brick to reluctant readers and watch their eyes fly open. More than half of it is told in illustrations and they are glorious. Sometimes, when reading an illustrated novel, one can skip over the pictures. Not so here. Readers will miss significant chunks of story if the illustrations aren't given careful consideration. Mr. Selznick won the 2008 Caldecott Medal for this work. Caldecott Medals are awarded for the art in what is usually a picture book. This was the first novel to ever win a Caldecott Medal!
The Invention of Hugo Cabret is the story of Hugo, an orphan who lives in the walls of a Paris train station. He had been living with an abusive, alcoholic uncle who trained him to tend to the clocks throughout the station. When his uncle doesn't return home, Hugo continues the job and tries to keep out of sight. He's caught stealing from a cranky toy shop owner though and he confiscates Hugo's tools and his beloved father's notebook. His father worked in a museum restoring pieces and had been working on restoring an automaton at the time of his death in a fire. Hugo wants to repair the machine.
The story was adapted for film by Martin Scorsese and released in 2011. Mr. Selznick had a cameo appearance in the party scene at the end of the movie.
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